Car plant near downtown?

Coda Automotive is the Santa Monica-based electric car startup that's looking to build a final battery assembly plant somewhere in L.A. County. The Downtown News posts that the company is in advanced talks with the Community Redevelopment Agency to develop the plant just south of downtown and adjacent to the Los Angeles River. (An Italian rail car manufacturer had been looking at the site but dropped out last year.) On Thursday, the CRA board is scheduled to consider entering into an exclusive negotiating agreement. Already, the company has a $300 million line of credit and recently completed an automotive battery plant in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. From a recent Business Journal story:

The chassis and most other parts will be assembled in a factory in Harbin, China, a city of nearly 10 million people in the northeastern part of the country. The nearly completed vehicle and the battery pack would then be sent to Dalian, near Tianjin, and from there shipped either to Los Angeles or Port Hueneme in Ventura County.

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Coda has raised more than $100 million to date and is in the midst of its third investment round. Swiss investor Aeris Capital AG recently participated in the third round of financing. Other investors include Piper Jaffray Cos., clean-technology investment firm Angeleno Group LLC and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson.